To the Editor:
Here at the nursing home we’ve all been glued to the TV set watching the withdrawal from Iraq. For as long as I remember, in all my 93 years, war has been all around me. My grandfather fell as a Rough Rider during the Spanish-American War, my mother and father served in World [...]

To the Editor:
Re “Viva Free Trade with Cuba!” Page A6, July 2, 2009.
In addition to the benefits from ending the embargo on Cuba listed by your reporter (family visits for some of us, fabulous cigars for all of us, and affordable vacations that include the rental of vintage red Thunderbird convertibles), there is one more [...]

While thinking about the recent changes in this country, I recalled an article by Robert M. Sapolsky (in Foreign Affairs, January 2006), who lived for a while among a troop of baboons in the wild, and witnessed a remarkable transformation.

You won’t read many stories critical of the recently-passed “Ban on Lobbying” bill, H.R. 27865, whether in this newspaper or any other media outlet. Lobbyists have been treated as pariahs by the press, by both candidates in the latest elections, and in popular culture. They have been called “the root of the problem” in Washington, [...]

In a scripture-laced address yesterday afternoon, Reverend Rich Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, announced a sweeping new initiative to house displaced Iraqi refugees of all faiths in the largest church facilities in the U.S., and among parishioners.

Recent studies have shown that embedded reporters lose perspective and objectivity. Thrust into high-tension situations of dangerous conflict, and surrounded by a corps of strong personalities devoted to a single objective, journalists almost inevitably write subjectively and sympathetically of situations that are best addressed analytically.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced today that it would eliminate more than $60 billion worth of secret programs that have taken over an increasing share of the defense budget over the last 30 years.
“There is no place, in a democracy, for massive programs hidden out of sight of the public eye,” said Pentagon spokesperson Jackson [...]

The momentous occasion of the end of the war in Iraq also marks a time for reflection at The Times. As many of our readers have pointed out for years, this newspaper played no small part in making the case for the war in the first place, and in supporting the costly and deadly U.S. [...]